AN: new chapter out. Enjoy!


Chapter 17 - Coming out

"I wonder what kind of mess he's gotten himself into," Kushina said.

"When has our son ever gotten himself in serious trouble though?"

Minato's words were not baseless. Even before Naruto's behaviour changed for the better and he stopped being disrespectful and rebellious, he had never gotten into real trouble. Some scuffles at school and being admonished for being too rowdy were normal for regular boys his age. But other than that, despite not putting effort into studying and often coming home late, he didn't skip school and he didn't partake in delinquent-like activities.

Nonetheless, if the way he was stepping on the gas pedal was anything to go by, Minato seemed worried too. The reason for their current anxiety was the text message they had received only a few minutes after the end of the UA High Sports Festival:

"Dad, there's something important I need to talk to you and mom about. It's really, really important. Please come home as soon as you can."

The two of them tried calling Naruto after that but he did not pick up any of their calls. As parents, while knowing that Naruto had asked them before to call All Might, how could they not be worried after receiving such a text message from their teenage son who had gone alone all the way to Tokyo?

His fox ears picking up the screeching sound of tires made by a car abruptly breaking, Naruto quickly stood up and went to the entrance door. Startled by his sudden action, Eri jumped up from the sofa and ran after him, grabbing him from his pants from behind.

"Don't worry, Eri-chan. I'm sure my parents will like you."

"Really?" the little girl asked in a hopeful voice.

"Really!" he said and patted her on the head. "Besides, what's not to like about you? You're the cutest girl I've ever seen!"

Eri looked down shyly, her cheeks slightly pink with embarrassment at his praise.

Although he reassured Eri that his parents were going to love her, deep down, Naruto was not any less anxious than her. Even though he was only 15 years old physically, due to having the experience of two lives, Naruto was more mature mentally than his age implied. He understood how difficult was the upcoming discussion with his parents going to be.

It was unlike Minato to drive aggressively and go over the speed limit and he was not the type to break with a screeching sound either but he could not help his desire to get home as fast as possible at that moment. Parking roughly in front of the gate of the garage, Minato and Kushina slammed the doors of the car as they got out and rushed towards the entrance door. Just as he was about to grab the doorknob, the entrance door opened and nearly hit him in the face. (1)

"Naruto! You're okay! Why didn't you pick up the phone?! We were so worried!" Kushina said and rushed at him, momentarily not knowing whether she wanted to take him in her arms and embrace him or strangle him. She ended up settling for grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.

But suddenly, she became as still as a statue. Hidden almost completely by Naruto's three fluffy fox tails, a little girl no older than 6 was clutching at the fabric of his pants with both hands as she looked up anxiously.

"Mom, dad. This is Eri-chan."

As Naruto related them the events he had gone through while he had been in Tokyo, Minato and Kushina's faces went through several different expressions. Hearing that a girl as young as her - she was only 6! - had been abused to the point where she had decided to run away from home, the two of them could not help being filled with righteous anger. But their anger soon deflated at the sight of the dirty dress she was wearing and the soiled bandages wrapped around Eri's arms and legs.

Overwhelmed with a feeling of pity, Kushina came to sit on the sofa next to Eri and Naruto and took the little girl in a motherly embrace that left the little girl lost for words. Although she stiffened at the unexpected physical contact with a person that she did not know anything about, a few moments later, Eri melted into Kushina's embrace.

With Kushina's motherly instincts taking over like that, the duty of acting like a rational adult fell on Minato's shoulders. As much pity as he felt for the little girl's plight, this was not the kind of matter that could be brushed over with just feelings alone.

"But why bring her home, Naruto? Don't misunderstand, it's not that I have something against Eri-chan in particular, but there are several legal procedures that one has to go through before becoming the guardian of a child. The Child Protection Agency could even get someone to go to prison if they just grabbed a random child from the streets and took them home."

Naruto made a difficult expression, not knowing exactly how to break it to him. He scratched the back of his head furiously for a moment and blew out a long sigh before addressing his mother:

"Mom. I think I have to come out with the secret."

Kushina's and Minato's eyes became as wide as saucers...though for different reasons.

But before Kushina could reply, Minato stood up and came to Naruto. Putting a hand on his shoulder, Minato said:

"That's what you were worried about? Listen to me, Naruto. No matter what, you are still my son. Being gay doesn't change that. I don't-"

"DAD! I'm not gay!" Naruto shouted in indignation at his misunderstanding.

In spite of what was about to happen - Naruto divulging a secret that she had kept away from her husband for so many years - Kushina could not keep in her laughter at the unexpected hilarity of the situation. Maybe it was because of how nervous she was in regards to what was about to come, but Kushina could not stop laughing for a good while.

"Ehh? But I thought-" Minato began to say in confusion.

"No, it's something entirely different. I..." he trailed off, only for Kushina (who had calmed down in the meantime) to say:

"You made me a promise, Naruto. Why would you go back on your word now?"

"It's the only way it would make sense for you why Eri-chan needs to stay with us."

A momentary silence descended as Naruto looked down at his clasped hands and Kushina chewed on her lower lip with her eyes pinned on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Minato kept switching from looking from one to another as a feeling of irritation slowly seeped in at the thought that his wife and his son had been keeping a secret from him.

But then, he palmed his face with a hand and let out a big groan before saying:

"Just tell me. I promise I won't be mad."

Hearing his father's words, Naruto began to explain the situation in detail:

"Eri-chan has a powerful quirk. Probably the most powerful and most dangerous quirk I've ever seen... ...it's almost like the power of a god."

'This innocent and adorable little girl?' Kushina and Minato unknowingly thought at the same time as they turned to look at Eri who was now sticking as close as humanly possible to Naruto's side and hiding her face behind one of his fluffy fox tails.

"Her quirk is Rewind. She can turn back time on someone's body. I've seen it with my own eyes. She made one of her captors grow younger until he became a toddler and then he disappeared. She made him stop existing."

His parents became speechless.

"The Child Protection Agency can't take care of Eri-chan. They can't stop her if her Quirk goes out of control. As far as I know, there are only two people, maybe three that can stop her. One of them is my homeroom teacher, Aizawa-sensei, he can cancel quirks. The other one is the Modern Hero Art teacher, the R-rated hero, Midnight, she could probably put her to sleep. But you can tell neither is exactly the best parent material out there... ...the last person would be me."

"What could you do about it with your Quirk?"

Although it looked like Naruto was going to only talk about himself instead of also revealing that she had a quirk too, Kushina decided that since the cat was out of the bag, she might as well come out in the open too.

Minato's mouth fell open in what seemed to be disbelief at the sight in front of him: four golden chains glowing with a bright light unexpectedly tore out through the back of his wife's shirt and flailed slowly in the air around her.

"I'm sorry, Minato," Kushina said guiltily and looked down, not daring to meet his eyes. "I've been lying to you for years, I'm not Quirkless."

A silence that one could hear a pin drop was instilled. Seeing that Minato was not interrupting her, she continued speaking all the while wrenching her fingers.

"I've never told anyone about this Quirk before. The Hero Association doesn't know about it either. Originally, my plan was to take this secret to the grave with me..."

"I don't understand, why all this secrecy?" Minato eventually croaked out. "Your chains don't look like a terrible quirk or something that would put someone's life in danger."

"These chains have the ability to cancel all Quirks, they offer an absolute defence against any sort of attacks, they are indestructible and anyone caught by chains has no chance of escaping. I've also never found anything that the spear tips of these chains cannot pierce," Kushina explained.

"...alright, that sounds incredible," he agreed. "But that only brings me back to the earlier question: why keep it a secret? With the potential of this Quirk you could've become a top 10 Hero effortlessly! My word, the Police, the Special Forces, hell, the Prime Minister himself would directly ask for someone like you to become their personal bodyguard! How could you give up on all that?!"

"None of that matters if I ended up dead!" Kushina replied a bit more harshly than she had intended.

"What-"

"An evil man has been trying to hunt down my family for generations. I don't know his real name but he is known as All For One. He has a unique ability to steal other people's quirk. My grandmother was the first who manifested this chains and All For One had been obsessed with stealing this quirk for decades. But granny was strong and she was intelligent too. Using her husband's connections in the police, she entered a witness protection program and All For One lost track of her eventually."

After pausing for a second to clear her throat, Kushina said:

"My mother never awakened these chains. It takes a moment of great stress, a moment of life and death to awaken them and it's not guaranteed. But I awakened my chains when I was 10, in the car crash that killed my parents. I survived thanks to this Quirk so I'll never resent it in spite of the dangers that it had brought upon me... But, before my grandma passed away she told me the secret and made me swear I'd never use my Quirk or reveal it to anyone. All For One was too powerful and too dangerous. I couldn't tell you either. I didn't want to put you in danger."

Finally lifting her head to look her husband in the eyes, she said:

"I had had no intention of ever telling anyone if Naruto hadn't awakened the chains himself too."

"The Sludge Villain!" Minato exclaimed as the pieces finally fell together in his mind.

He was an intelligent man and he had always wondered how had Naruto managed to survive against someone like the Sludge Villain whose Quirk was a counter for almost all physical-damage types. And not just surviving, the Sludge Villains had even lost his life. His initial guess had been that a Vigilante had happened to be nearby but after finally finding out the truth, everything made sense.

Looking down at her hands again, Kushina said:

"I'm sorry I've kept such an important secret from you. But I don't regret it. If I could go back, I would make the same choice again. All I ever wanted was for my family to be happy and safe."

"I'm sorry, mom," Naruto mumbled, feeling like shit for what he was putting his mother through at that moment.

Unable to bear with oppressing silence that was instilled, Naruto said after a while:

"Will you allow me to take care of Eri-chan? It's only for 3 years. All Might told me that normally I'd have to be at least 25 years old to adopt a child but he could pull some strings for the Child Protection Agency to let me adopt Eri when I become of age."

Seeing that they were keeping silent, he added, his voice taking on a more pleading tone:

"I know I'm asking for a lot. But you don't have to worry! I only need you to be her legal guardian. I will take care of her every day and take her with me to school. I'll also get a part-time job to help with the money and I believe I can get a provisional Hero Licence next semester. I won't burden you, I promise. Just-... just let me take care of Eri. Please."

Minato and Kushina were not silent because they were pondering on whether to accept Eri-chan or not. They were just mute with surprise because they had never heard Naruto beg them for something like that.

"You want to adopt Eri when you become an adult?" Kushina muttered as he looked at the little girl that was huddled at his side and looking down anxiously. She could not understand what could have prompted Naruto to go as far as to force her into revealing her secret Quirk for the sake of a girl he had only met a few hours ago.

But that's because she did not know about Naruto's past life. Kushina did not know how much did Naruto resonate with Eri-chan being an orphan, growing up without feeling love and affection or being born with a cursed power.

"You probably think I'm just a kid so I don't know what I want. But this isn't something I want in the heat of the moment. I... I'm willing to do anything to take care of Eri-chan. I promise," he said as he wrapped an arm around Eri and rubbed her shoulder gently.

'This could've gone better... ...but it could've also gone a lot of worse,' Naruto thought.

His parents had not given him an answer right away. Instead, they told him that they were going to town to discuss it between the two of them first.

'I haven't thought about it that much before but my sensitive hearing must've made their lives quite difficult sometimes...'

Now, a few hours later, he was sitting together with Eri at the table in the kitchen; they were having dinner.

Putting down her spoon, Eri raised her head to look at Naruto with her big red eyes as she asked:

"Are you in trouble because of me?"

All worries momentarily vanished from Naruto's thoughts when he saw the little girl's mouth smudged with curry and her big innocent eyes looking at him tearfully.

'Gah! Why the hell are you so cute?!' He almost cooed.

"You don't have to worry about that," Naruto said with a sunny smile and brought a napkin at her mouth to wipe the traces of sauce away. "Do you like the curry?"

"Un!" the little girl made a noise of confirmation and nodded her head energetically before grabbing the spoon and taking another big mouthful of curry and rice that smudged her face all over again. "I nevaa had cuwy befo! It's so gwood!" she said through bites.

"Finish swallowing before speaking, okay? It's not nice to speak with your mouth full," Naruto admonished her lightly and wiped her mouth and cheeks again with a new napkin.

Eri-chan nodded obediently before diving back into her bowl. Naruto vowed to himself he would make Eri taste all kinds of delicious foods from then on.

It was late, past midnight, when Naruto's fox ears flinched and he woke up at the sound of the entrance door being opened. Normally, he slept with custom-made earbuds for his fox ears to prevent any random noises from disturbing him but that night he did not wear them on purpose in order to hear when his parents came back home.

Getting up from his bed slowly so as to not disturb Eri who was sleeping curled up next to him, he went to the living room right as his parents finished taking their shoes off.

"Crap," Naruto heard his father mutter under his breath when he saw him enter the living room and Kushina giggled at her husband's expense.

The reason for Minato's cussing became clear to Naruto when he took in their appearance. Their faces were slightly flushed, Minato's neck was peppered with red marks, Kushina's long crimson hair was a dishevelled mess and the smell that wafted from them...

"Ugh... sorry. Talk to you in the morning. Good night," Naruto said quickly and did a 180 before making a beeline back to his bedroom, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Sometimes, Naruto hated how perceptive he could be because of his fox quirk.


AN:

(1) In Japan, entrance doors open outward.